Belgium was represented by

Nathalie Sorce Nathalie Sorce (born 1979) is a Belgian singer from Mornimont. She was secretly registered in a Walloon TV talent competition ''Pour la gloire'' by a relative and went on to win. In 2000, she won the Belgian Eurovision national selection and repre ...

with the song "Envie de vivre" at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

on 13 May. Sorce was the winner of the Belgian national final for the contest, held in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 18 February. French-language broadcaster

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

was in charge of the selection of the Belgian entry for the 2000 Contest.

Before Eurovision

Finale Nationale Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 2000

The final took place on 18 February 2000 at the RTBF Studio 6, hosted by

Jean-Pierre Hautier Jean-Pierre Hautier (18 October 1955 – 12 October 2012) was a Belgian television presenter and broadcaster for RTBF. Hautier was known for his long-time commentary for RTBF viewers on the Eurovision Song Contest which he has done since the 19 ...

. A public televote determined the winner, "Envie de vivre" performed by

. The results of the public televote were revealed by Belgium's six regions (four Walloon provinces with votes from

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

being combined, a "Rest of Belgium" region covering the five

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

provinces, and

) and led to the victory of Sorce by a margin of over 3,500 votes.

Controversy

After the final, there was initially some degree of uncertainty about the disproportionately high number of votes to Sabrina Klinkenberg from the province of Liège, but RTBF subsequently confirmed that it was correct, citing the fact that Klinkenberg was a native of that province as the most probable explanation, and pointing out that Sorce had also received an exceptionally high number of votes from her home province of Hainaut.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Sorce performed 10th in the running order, following

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and preceding

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. A somewhat shrill and at times off-key vocal performance, combined with a much-criticised choice of outfit, contributed towards an ignominious result, with only 2 points received and a last place finish of the 24 entrants, the eighth time that Belgium had finished at the foot of the Eurovision scoreboard. The 12 points from the Belgian televote were awarded to

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

.ESC History - Belgium 2000
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Voting

References

External links

Belgian Preselection 2000
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2000

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...